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Reporter’s Identity Stolen

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It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, rich or poor, if you have good credit or bad credit, pay with cash or credit card, whether or not you use the Internet, or even own a computer. You can be a maintenance worker or a scientist. It doesn’t matter.

Whether you are alive or even if you are dead, as long as you have a Social Security number, you are a potential identity theft victim.

Reporters tend to be fairly savvy and well informed. Identity theft, however, is a complicated issue, and anyone can be stumped, regardless of your level of security intelligence.

One reporter received an alert about “irregular check card activity.” It was sent late one weeknight, and she didn’t see the email until the following night. At first, she couldn’t believe her bank account could have been compromised, and suspected it was a phishing email designed to trick her into disclosing her account information. But when she called her bank, she learned that nearly all her money had already been stolen.

“I soon discovered I was a victim of identity theft and that a woman posing as me in California was allowed to spend and withdraw all of my family’s money in two linked accounts from my bank, without stealing my debit or credit cards. She took more than $40,000.”

The thief used a fake driver’s license, which replaced the victim’s ID in the bank’s computer, signed documents with a signature that looked nothing like the victim’s, and gave the bank a new phone number and address. She took over and cleaned out two accounts, one of which was a checking account used for family expenses, and the other was an investment account.

After a great deal of stress and aggravation, the victim and her husband managed to get their stolen savings reimbursed by their bank. She still doesn’t know how the thief managed to steal her identity, or if she was ever caught.

Identity theft can happen to anyone. McAfee Identity Protection offers proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts. McAfee puts victims first and provides live access to fraud resolution agents who work with victims to help restore stolen identities, even from thefts that occurred prior to subscribing to McAfee’s service.

For additional tips, visit CounterIdentityTheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss scambaiting on Fox News. (Disclosures)

Lawmakers Push To Shield Last 4 Social Security Numbers

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Most of us have become accustomed to giving out the last four digits of our Social Security numbers. But this customary request is becoming increasingly problematic, and two Rhode Island lawmakers are responding by pushing legislation to stop businesses from asking for the last four digits of customers’ Social Security numbers.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a reliable method for predicting Social Security numbers, including the first five digits, using information from social networking sites, data brokers, voter registration lists, online white pages, and the publicly available Social Security Administration’s Death Master File. This, of course, makes the last four digits vulnerable.

NBC 10 Rhode Island reports, “The lawmakers say identity thieves can often determine an entire Social Security number from just a few digits. They called the bill ‘a seemingly small, but vitally important way for government to further protect its citizens from the financial and emotional devastation of identity theft.’”

The nine-digit Social Security number is composed of three parts. The first set of three digits is the Area Number. The second set of two digits is the Group Number. The final set of four digits is the Serial Number.

The Area Number is assigned by geographical region. Prior to 1972, when cards were issued in local Social Security offices around the country, the Area Number represented the State in which the card was issued, but not necessarily the applicant’s state of residence.

The Group Number ranges from 01 to 99, but numbers are not assigned in consecutive order. For administrative reasons, odd numbers from 01 through 09 are issued first, followed by even numbers from 10 through 98.

Serial Numbers run consecutively from 0001 through 9999.

This numbering scheme was designed in 1936, before the existence of computers, primarily for the purpose of tracking Social Security benefits. It was not designed to be used as a national identification number, as it arguably is used today. And once a criminal gets your Social Security number, he has extensive access to your identity.

To avoid becoming an identity theft victim, consider subscribing to an identity theft protection service that offers proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts.

For additional tips, visit CounterIdentityTheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss Social Security numbers as national identification on Fox News. (Disclosures)

Mobile Banking Becoming an E-Commerce Staple

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Mobile banking, m-banking, or SMS banking refers to online banking that occurs via mobile phone or PDA rather than a PC. The earliest mobile banking services were offered over SMS, but with the introduction of smartphones and Apple iOS, mobile banking is being offered primarily through applications as opposed to text messages or a mobile browser.

Mobile banking reduces expenses by allowing customers to review transactions, transfer funds, pay bills, and check balances without relatively expensive phone calls to a bank’s customer service call center. More than half of all customer service calls already come in from mobile phones, and studies show consumers are twice as likely to have a cell phone than cash when out and about. Younger consumers, who are most likely to carry cell phones, are also heavy debit card users who require frequent balance checks.

Enhanced security with SMS transaction notifications and the ability to turn card accounts on or off, and new technologies like mobile check deposit, in which you simply take a cell phone picture of the check, are contributing to the increasing popularity of mobile banking. Eventually, mobile phones may even replace ATMs and credit cards.

About 10% of U.S. households currently use mobile banking, according to market research firm Nielsen, and Forrester predicts that one in five adults in the U.S. will be useing mobile banking by 2015:

“Consumer adoption of smartphones and increasing use of the mobile Web will drive sustained growth of casual, informational use of mobile banking — to check balances, review transactions, or receive alerts. Creating preference for mobile banking broadly will require banks to deliver more obvious value and superior execution than other channels offer. Functionality like mobile remote deposit capture and contactless mobile payments alone, though, will not anchor mobile banking the way that bill payment and account transfers have done for online banking. Channel managers must address issues of duplicate functionality, marginal user experiences, and a general failure to exploit the most valuable aspects of the channel if mobile banking is to become a critical part of how consumers manage their accounts.”

Standard, PC-based online banking is holding steady at around 40%, banks like USAA and Bank of America are reporting big increases in mobile banking in the last two years.

Like regular online banking, mobile banking won’t be for everyone. But as more banks and credit unions recognize the financial efficiency of mobile banking, they will invest in applications that make banking that much more convenient for their customers. And as those customers take advantage of the timesaving features provided by their banks, mobile banking will grow exponentially.

Robert Siciliano is a personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto. (Disclosures)

102-Year-Old Woman’s Identity Stolen

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How low can you go? In Virginia, a man has been accused of identity theft, forgery, and obtaining money by false pretenses.

The 25-year-old accused claims, “I know I’m not guilty of any of theses charges…The day that it aired people were calling me and texting me and asking me what have I done and I was like what are you talking about? I thought I was being pranked.”

He is, however, on probation for similar charges, but he swears that he’s no longer a criminal, though he was six years ago. Well, all right then, I guess he must be innocent!

According to detectives, in one scam he used counterfeit checks to make purchases at various stores, and then returned his purchases to different stores in exchange for cash.

One of his identity theft victims is a 102-year-old woman who recently graduated from the city’s citizen police academy, the oldest person ever to do so. “I don’t know how they got my identity,” she said.

How cool is she? But how difficult must it be to recover from identity theft at 102 years old?

Observing a few basic security precautions to protect your identity may help you avoid such a chore.

Consumers should also consider investing in an identity theft protection product that offer daily credit monitoring, proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts. McAfee Identity Protection includes all these features, as well as live access to fraud resolution agents in the event that your identity is ever compromised.

For additional tips, visit CounterIdentityTheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss identity theft victims on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. (Disclosures)

Operation Empty Promises Targets Job Scams

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The recession may have waned, but we aren’t out of the woods yet. The unemployment rate is still a staggering 9.5%. That’s millions of people without a job. Many who were displaced eventually got lower paying jobs, and are barely able to get by.

Jobseekers’ desperation for employment makes them vulnerable to work-from-home scams and fake job listings.

The Federal Trade Commission recently announced that it has ”stepped up its ongoing campaign against scammers who falsely promise guaranteed jobs and opportunities to ‘be your own boss’ to consumers who are struggling with unemployment and diminished incomes as a consequence of the economic downturn.”

Criminals take advantage of increasing unemployment with fake job listings, designed to trick applicants into disclosing their Social Security numbers. Some scammers who more closely resemble legitimate companies make millions by blanketing classified advertisements across the country, roping people in with false promises.

One company offered to help workers start their own Internet business and earn up to $10,000 a month, ultimately defrauding victims out of $40 million in fees. Another advertised fake sales jobs on CareerBuilder.com and charged applicants for background checks. In another instance, scammers made false claims about the earnings potential of stuffing circulars into envelopes. Another scam advertised an angel pin assembly kit, with which one could supposedly earn up to $500 per week, no experience, special tools, or sewing skills required. The worst scam offered to help consumers recover money lost to other scammers, for a fee of up to $499.

If a job description doesn’t sound like something you would see printed on a business card, or if you are asked to front money, it’s a scam.

Robert Siciliano, personal security and identity theft expert contributor to iovation, discusses money mules and job scams on Fox News. (Disclosures)

Identity Theft Tops Consumer Complaints for Eleventh Year

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The Federal Trade Commission recently released the list of the most common consumer complaints in 2010. Identity theft topped the list for the eleventh year in a row. The FTC received 1,339,265 in 2010, and 250,854, or 19%, involved identity theft. In second place, there were 144,159 debt collection complaints.

For the first time, “imposter scams,” in which imposters pose as friends, family, respected companies, or government agencies in order to persuade consumers to send money, made the top ten. The FTC has issued a new consumer alert to help consumers avoid imposter scams.

FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne Farrell commented, “Most people don’t know how their identity was stolen. If you lose your wallet on Monday and Tuesday someone starts using your cards, you have a pretty good educated guess. Otherwise you don’t. And how would you know if someone stole your identity on the Internet?”

More than half of complaints to the FTC involved some other type of fraud. 45% of those scams were initiated via email, including phishing emails. 11% of the scams originated from websites, and 19% were initiated over the phone.

Protect yourself from identity theft and other varieties of fraud by locking your mailbox to prevent stolen mail, storing sensitive paperwork in a locked file cabinet, and shredding any documents that include a name or account number before discarding them.

Protect your PC by installing antivirus and spyware removal software, and keeping your PC’s critical security patches updated.

To ensure peace of mind, subscribe to an identity theft protection service, such as McAfee Identity Protection, which offers proactive identity surveillance and lost wallet protection. If your credit or debit cards are ever lost, stolen or misused without your authorization, you can call McAfee Identity Protection and they’ll help you cancel them and order new ones. If their product fails, you’ll be reimbursed for any stolen funds not covered by your bank or credit card company. (See McAfee’s guarantee for details.)

For additional tips, visit CounterIdentityTheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him explain how to protect yourself from identity theft on CounterIdentityTheft.com. (Disclosures)

Most Willing to Pay to Reduce Identity Theft Risk

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When you compare the cost of various services, you begin to see how much your time is worth. For example, it would take most homeowners a significant chunk of nights and weekends to paint a house themselves, but a professional crew can get it done in a week, for a reasonable price.

Recovering from identity theft can take as little as an hour for some, or up to several hundred hours for others. For some, it takes a lifetime. The average identity theft victim loses anywhere from $2800.00 to $5100.00, which, coincidentally, happens to be roughly the cost of painting a house!

Nicole Piquero, one of the most distinguished female criminologists in the nation, according to The Journal of Criminal Justice Education, explains, “Identity theft, also known as ‘identity fraud,’ has affected between 5 and 25 percent of U.S. households. Because of our increasing reliance on technology, and given the resourcefulness of hard-to-catch identity thieves, it seems likely that most if not all of us will at some point be victims of this crime or know others that have been.”

Piquero and her spouse, Alex Piquero, who has made significant scholarly contributions to the field, conducted a study that “reveals that most individuals will agree to a small tax increase to support government-sponsored identity theft prevention efforts.”

Unfortunately, the government isn’t doing anything to protect you. Fortunately, McAfee Identity Protection includes proactive identity surveillance to monitor subscribers’ credit and personal information, as well as access to live fraud resolution agents.

For additional tips, visit CounterIdentityTheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss identity theft on YouTube. (Disclosures)

Spyware A Major Identity Theft Threat

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Spyware is sold legally in the United States. This software records chats, emails, browsing history, usernames, passwords, and basically everything a person does on that PC. Some spyware programs can record everything in a video file, which can then be accessed remotely.

This is all perfectly legal as long as the PC’s owner installs the software. It is illegal to install spyware on a computer that is not your own.

Spyware can be great if, for example, you want to monitor your twelve-year-old daughter who obsessively chats online, or your employees whose lack of productivity has you wondering if they’re watching YouTube all day.

Spyware also comes in the form of a virus, which essentially does the same thing. When you click a malicious link or install a program that is infected with malicious software, several different types of spyware can be installed as well.

Spyware can also take the form of a keylogger or keycatcher, a USB device similar to a USB flash drive, which can connect to a PC and piggyback the keyboard connection. Keycatchers have a made a splash in schools, where students plug them into the back of teachers’ PCs, trying to get test information ahead of time.

In England, two keyloggers were found plugged into public library computers. This would have allowed whoever planted the USB devices to access a record of activity on the compromised computers. “It’s unclear who placed the snooping devices on the machines but the likely purpose was to capture banking login credentials on the devices prior to their retrieval and use in banking fraud.”

Keep in mind that anyone with special access to a computer, including friends, family, and employees, poses the main threat. A cleaning person or security guard could always be paid to install spyware in order to record sensitive data.

Check your USB ports to make sure there are no mysterious devices attached to your PC. Prevent unauthorized password installation by password protecting the administrator account on your PC.

Only download files from trusted websites, and avoid torrents and software cracks, which are often seeded with spyware.

Never click “Agree,” “OK,” “No,” or “Yes” in a popup. Instead, hit the red X or shut down your browser by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

Keep your operating system’s security patches updated, and be sure to install the latest, most secure version of your browser. And Run McAfee Total Protection, including spyware removal.

McAfee Identity Protection includes proactive identity surveillance to monitor subscribers’ credit and personal information and access to live fraud resolution agents who can help subscribers work through the process of resolving identity theft issues. For additional tips, please visit http://www.counteridentitytheft.com

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee Consultant and Identity Theft Expert. See him discussing spyware on Fox Boston (Disclosures)

3 Year Old’s Identity Stolen To Buy Porn

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A thief hacked into a woman’s checking account and used her daughter’s name on an electronic check to pay for an online porn subscription. The FBI believes this is a relatively new scam, with reports coming in from across the country.

The little girl isn’t a signer on the account, but the bank cashed the check for $29.95 made out to a porn company in her name.

“Somebody took money from me, somebody took my account number, somebody used my daughter’s name for porn,” the mother says.

According to the Colorado Banker’s Association, “any company you send a check to has enough information to steal from you… Online bill pay isn’t any safer because criminals have been known to hack into computers.”

That’s a serious statement from a bank representative. I can’t help but wonder if it was translated correctly? She went on to note that many checks were being cashed for small amounts, which doesn’t send a red flag to banks.

Consumers often overlook these smaller transactions, or “microcharges,” which are fraudulent charges ranging from 20 cents to $10. The victims of this particular scam would see the fictional merchant’s name and toll-free number on their debit or credit card statements. If they called to dispute a charge, the phone numbers would be disconnected or go straight to voicemail. Many frustrated consumers don’t even bother to dispute the charges.

This scam can often be fixed by paying attention to your statements and refuting charges within a specified time frame. You have up to 60 days, at most, depending on the nature of the card. Check with your bank.

McAfee Identity Protection includes proactive identity surveillance to monitor subscribers’ credit and personal information and access to live fraud resolution agents who can help subscribers work through the process of resolving identity theft issues. For additional tips, please visit http://www.counteridentitytheft.com

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee Consultant and Identity Theft Expert. See him discussing child identity theft on NBC Boston (Disclosures)

Identity Theft Victim Held Hostage By Bank

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The Huffington Post reports, “The Identity Theft Resource Center says Ty Powell is a victim of identity theft. Freddie Mac says he hasn’t paid his mortgage in two years. The local paper says he’s dead. Powell says, ‘I don’t know what to say.’”

Powell bought a house in Arizona from a builder, paying $217,000 in cash that he made playing professional basketball in Brazil. While he was in Brazil, someone sucked the equity out of the home to the tune of a $376,703 mortgage, and of course, defaulted. It is believed that the builder, who had the personal information on Powell, took out the loan and even paid some of the debt in order to keep the scheme until after Powell had taken possession of the house.

Then one day, Powell gets an eviction notice saying he has to move out of his home because of the unpaid mortgage. Unfortunately, it’s been demonstrated time and again that when it comes to being an identity theft victim, you are guilty until proven innocent.

Freddie Mac’s spokesperson replies, “We believe the foreclosure was legitimate because the loan secured by the property was in default. Despite a mortgage workout in 2008, no mortgage payment had been received since January 2009. We have also referred the matter to our fraud investigations unit.”

The local paper incorrectly reported that Powell had died of a heart attack. This was more than likely planted by the identity thief so that a death certificate would be issued, making it difficult for the bank to proceed.

Meanwhile, the scammers opened new credit card accounts and got a fraudulent driver’s license in Powell’s name.

Most, if not all, of this was preventable.

To ensure peace of mind —subscribe to an identity theft protection service, such as McAfee Identity Protection, which offers proactive identity surveillance and lost wallet protection. If your credit or debit cards are ever lost, stolen or misused without your authorization, you can call McAfee Identity Protection and they’ll help you cancel them and order new ones. If their product fails, you’ll be reimbursed for any stolen funds not covered by your bank or credit card company. Please see Guarantee for details. For additional tips, please visit http://www.counteridentitytheft.com

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee Consultant and Identity Theft Expert. See him discussing how to protect yourself from identity theft on CounterIdentityTheft.com. (Disclosures)